Indians Top 100 Prospects: #5 David Huff

5. David Huff - Left-handed Pitcher
Born: 08/22/1984 - Height: 6'2" - Weight: 190 - Bats: Switch - Throws: Left

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2006	21	Mahoning Vy	A-	0	1	5.87	4	4	0	7.2	9	5	0	7	8	8.2	9.4	2.09
2007	22	Kinston	A+	4	2	2.72	11	11	0	59.2	57	18	4	15	46	2.3	6.9	1.21
2008	23	Akron	AA	5	1	1.92	11	10	0	65.2	44	14	5	14	62	1.9	8.5	0.88
	23	Buffalo	AAA	6	4	3.01	16	16	0	80.2	68	27	8	15	81	1.7	9.0	1.03
		Career		15	8	2.70	42	41	0	213.2	178	64	17	51	197	2.2	8.3	1.07

History: Huff was a supplemental 1st round pick and the first player the Indians selected in the 2006 Draft out of UCLA.  An unknown fact about him is he was a switch hitter in high school, which shows his athletic ability.  Coming off a strained UCL in 2007, he had an innings threshold of 150 innings that the Indians held him to last year.  Because he was so strong and pitched so many innings the first half of the season, he was on pace to go well over the threshold, so he was limited to five innings a start for the last two months of the season.  This is also a big reason he was never called up to Cleveland last September. 

Strengths & Opportunities:  Huff is in the upper echelon of left-handed starting pitchers in the minors, and has good potential as a middle of the rotation starter in the big leagues.  He throws a fastball, curveball, slider and changeup, with the fastball velocity consistently clocking in at 90-93 MPH and has topped out as high as 94 MPH.  He is a strike-thrower and has excellent command of all his pitches, and has the best fastball command in the entire Indians system.  His fastball plays up because of his devastating plus changeup.  His changeup is his money pitch and a legitimate weapon against lefties and righties.  He displays just as much confidence in his changeup as he does his fastball, and is able to throw it in any count or situation.  Last year his slider developed into an effective breaking pitch he can use against left-handers.  The slider is firm with good depth and is now the third plus pitch in his arsenal and a potential out pitch at the next level.  He mixes in a 12-6 curveball which is real sharp and has a lot of depth to it, but is mostly used as a show-me pitch. 

Huff has a veteran attack plan and is all about command, movement and velocity.  While he does not overpower hitters, he has unbelievable confidence and a very good feel for his fastball which he commands well to both sides of the plate and to the corners on all four quadrants.  He is aggressive and attacks hitters, and he has a great, athletic delivery which deceives hitters and he repeats very well.  He is a pitcher you like to watch pitch because he is smart and knows how to pitch by moving the ball around in and out, gets the breaking ball and changeup over and knows how to use them, and he constantly makes adjustments to hitters in game by reading their swings.  He also does a good job of being consistent around the zone.  He is a very polished, confident mentally tough pitcher who has answered every challenge and has shown the ability to pitch in big games and pitch out of tight situations. 

Huff is often compared to the likes of Tom Glavine, Barry Zito and Jeremy Sowers, which is a pretty broad range of finesse left-handed pitchers, but he also shows some flashes of a Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels because of how he attacks hitters with a low 90s fastball to both sides of the plate and has a very good secondary pitch with the ability to strike people out.  While his velocity is very much like Indians left-handed starter Cliff Lee where it plays up some because of some deception in his delivery, the Indians feel his best comp is Glavine because the way they pitch, pound the zone with their fastball, and command the baseball is very similar. 

Huff knows how to pitch and is very smart, and really had a consistent season last year with very few rough outings.  Over the course of the 2008 season he continued to hone in on his mechanics and make sure he is more cognizant of when his mechanics start to drift a little.  He has made adjustments with his body and shows a strong commitment to professionalism.  While there was a scare for him and the Indians when he hurt his elbow in 2007, he came back well and has proven to be extremely strong and durable before and after the injury.  There is not much to nitpick about with Huff, but he does need to get better at finishing hitters off.  Many times last season he had hitters down in the count 0-2 or 1-2, but often gave up a hit in that count or let them battle back to work a hit or walk.  He has been throwing too many pitches to hitters and giving them too many opportunities to see his stuff.   He also has a tendency to cast his curveball at times.  The Indians would like to see Huff shore up his approach in this regard and be even more aggressive in going right after hitters and let them get themselves out.  He needs to pitch to his strengths and not try to be so fine with his pitches at times.  He needs to continue to keep his mechanics sharp by hitting his balance point and using his back leg with a little bit of bend to really drive off the rubber towards home plate and get full extension. 

Outlook:  Huff has enjoyed a lot of success in his baseball career after competing and dominating at a very high level in college, putting up a good showing in 2007 at advanced Single-A Kinston and the Arizona Fall League, and then having a fantastic year in 2008 at Double-A Akron and Triple-A Buffalo.  It is about his stuff, delivery and his command, and he is about as close to being major league ready as you can get.  He should open the season in the Triple-A Columbus rotation and gives the Indians viable major league starting depth in 2009 and should be a fixture in the rotation very soon, perhaps by opening day if he impresses and has a great spring training camp. 

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr 

David Huff MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page 

David Huff Baseball-Reference page 

David Huff MinorLeagueSplits.com page 

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